MemberThread Starter

I had to miss speech class last thursday and I emailed me teacher after a debate I attended on friday night about what type of outline we are supposed to use for our persuasive speech.. I emailed him again last night out of frustration from his lack of a response and he FINALLY emailed me this afternoon. I have been preparing my speech COMPLETELY wrong and am going to have to pick a new topic.. AND because I missed class last thursday he said that I would be going TOMORROW!! I have about 12 hours to write a new speech and practice it, I am PISSED!!!

Guest

Well, as a TA myself, I must gently remind you that it *is* your responsibility to keep track of your assignments, not your teacher's. And that you could have tried to get ahold of a classmate to get that information (you could have talked to a classmate the class before you missed to make sure someone expected your call or email). Or might have asked your teacher the class beforehand in person for further guidance. I understand your frustration about the delayed response, because I'm sure you assumed that you were going to get the information you requested via your instructor. If I were your instructor, I certainly would have made the effort to email you earlier if at all possible (your teacher too could have had an emergency or been away from email). But, for future reference, you have multiple other ways to get this information.

MemberThread Starter

I was also frustrated because it was required that we judge a debate on friday night at 7:30 and 8:30 because HIS students were competing. He told us that there should be signs posted where we should go... We all showed up to a strange college campus in GHETTO-VILLE (worst area of our city) to walk around in the dark with half the doors locked and no signs. Nowhere in the building were there signs. Turns out we werent even needed until 8:30, which is good because nobody could find the right place. hee hee..

MemberThread Starter

He is extremely disorganized, never has used a handout, had a bonus assignment that he only told the class about on the first day of class which was not even on the syllabus that we had to go home just to print off.. Needless to say that I did not hear about the bonus project due to his disorganization (others did not either).

MemberThread Starter

Haha thanks guys I appreciate it.. This is my third semester and I have never encountered a prof. like this before. I appreciate your support and even your critisisms. I pulled pretty much an all nighter and will probably die babysitting later today, but I have it done! HOO HA! Although I am not positive that it is done the right way, as far as if notecards are even allowed. If not I am SCREWED!

Daydreamer

I hate to break it to yah, but in your lifetime you will fall into the hands of a string of crappy teachers. There's just no guarantee that the professors who you get each semester will be reliable or effective in teaching. My brother is in college currently as well and last night [he has night courses. ew] he went to college just to find out that 3 of his classes were canceled for that night!! His professor didn't have her suitcase but since she didn't have all of the individual numbers of each student, she had to drive THREE HOURS [she commutes from far away] to get to college JUST to tell the students that there would be no class that day, because she had no other way of telling them. Can we say IRRESPONSIBLE? There are just no words...

So anyways, back to your speech... just hang in there, sweetheart. Don't make it seem like a bigger dilemma than it is. I would know, I can make a mountain over a molehill. Ahh! HaHa Grab a snack, put on some comfy clothes to lounge around in, maybe even turn on some soothing background music, and get cracking down to business. You'll get it done, I'm sure of it. Good luck doll.

Member

i must agree with vanojr9. if i were your prof, i would have tried to get back to you earlier, but in the end, your assignments are your responsibility. it's been a week since you missed class, you could have gone to see your prof during OH or found some other way to track him down.

as for the bonus assignment, some profs are like that. too often these days, students skip classes for whatever reason. why shouldn't those who were there in class the first day benefit from attending class? how is that any different than the prof pointing out an error in the text during class, and then testing for that on the next exam?

i hope it doesn't sound like i'm criticizing you. i was always critical of my profs and annoyed about things i thought were unfair. it wasn't until i started TAing that i saw the other side and realized that it wasn't so much unfair as it was life.

anywho, good luck on your speech tomorrow and take this as a lesson to make buddies in your classes! i always told my students to exchange emails with at least one of their classmates in case something came up.